The former Everton ace, who helped Australia clinch World Cup qualification last week, stayed back in Sydney to tend to his mother who underwent emergency surgery.

That doubled with a slight groin problem kept him out of the weekend’s loss to Philadelphia Union but Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke suggests he will be back in action against the visiting Houston Dynamo on Saturday.

“Tim came off that vital World Cup qualifier somewhere around the 80th minute. He felt a little something in his groin. It's nothing to be concerned about but he definitely felt something,” Petke said. “So the thing is that even if he had come back, he might not have been available for Philly.

“And then you couple that with his mom, who had a pretty serious medical condition that popped up that she had to have emergency surgery. So of course, we allowed him to stay there. She's fine now, recovering.

“Tim jumped on a plane around 12 hours ago so he should be here today and ready to roll tomorrow for practice and be ready for this weekend.”